Fiches Belges

As a rule in the criminal proceedings the identity of a person shall be established before performance of interrogation or other action with his/her participation such as recognition, invasive body search, searching and seizure, granting of expert opinion etc. Establishing of identity is performed both in the pre-trial and court stage of criminal proceedings – by the respective competent authority by means of an ID document of the person that contains a recent photograph, the person is asked about his/her full name, date and place of birth, citizenship, nationality, education, marital status, occupation, work place and position occupied, place of residence, record of previous convictions, as well as other circumstances that are of significance for the case. The presented information shall be recorded in a written statement drawn for the interrogation or the other procedural action with participation of the person. In case the identity of a person is not possible to be established by an ID document other methods may be used: identification on the basis of photographs, information provided by citizens with established identity, who know the person /testimony of witnesses/; recognition by relatives; DNA profiling methods; on the basis of fingerprints /dactyloscopic traces/; on the basis of data about criminal records /tattoos, scars from operations, injuries and other permanent scars or marks/ etc.

Criminal Procedure Code, EIO Act, Directive 2014/41/EU on EIOs, The Convention 2000, The Schengen Acquis - Agreement, the European Convention on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters of 1959

In cases of direct contact between the judicial authorities the following shall be observed: With regard to the pre-trial stage of proceedings: The competent authority is the respective first instance prosecutor`s office according to the rules of subject matter and territorial jurisdiction according to the Bulgarian legislation – art. 35 and art. 36 of Criminal Procedure Code of Republic of Bulgaria. If the crime is committed outside the territory of Bulgaria and the perpetrator is a Bulgarian citizen, the competent authority is the prosecutor`s office at his/her place of residence. In the same case, but if the perpetrator is not a Bulgarian citizen, the competent authority is Prosecutor`s Office in Sofia. With regard to the court stage of proceedings: The competent authority is the respective first instance court according to the rules described in connection to the pre-trial stage of proceedings. The competent authority to recognize an EIO for a control of identity or other measures for judicial identification, issued by a competent authority of another Member State, is: 1. in the pre-trial proceedings - a prosecutor from the respective district or military-district prosecutor's office, in whose region the respective investigative action or other procedural actions are requested, or the transfer of the evidence already available; 2. in the court proceedings - the respective district or military court, in whose region the performance of the respective judicial investigative action or the transfer of the evidence, which are already available. When the EIO has been sent to a body, which is not competent to recognize it, it shall send it ex officio to the respective competent authority u and shall immediately notify the issuing body thereof in a manner allowing written certification of the authenticity of the receipt and of its content.

The EIO could be sent to the competent authorities translated into Bulgarian or English. When other type of the MLA is sent, the request and enclosed documents shall be accompanied by translation in Bulgarian language or in one of the official languages of the Council of Europe. With regard to the prompt administration and fulfillment of the request it is recommended the latter to be translated in Bulgarian language in advance.

EIO: No later than 30 days from the receipt of the EIO the competent authority has to take a decision for its recognition and execution. This term may be extended by not more than 30 days after indicating the reasons for the delay and after consultations between the competent authority and the issuing body. The competent authority for the execution of the EIO shall carry out actions for the investigation and other procedural actions within no later than 90 days from the date of its recognition. When it is not possible to observe the above terms, the competent authority shall immediately notify the issuing body of the reasons for the delay and after conducting consultations the necessary additional time for execution of an investigation action and other procedural actions shall be determined. When the issuing body has indicated in the EIO that due to the determined procedural terms, the gravity of the crime, or other especially urgent circumstances a shorter term is necessary or that investigative and other procedural actions must be carried out on a specific date, the competent authority for the execution of the EIO shall comply with this requirement as far as possible. When it is not possible to comply with the term or the specific date, the competent authority shall immediately notify the issuing body of the reasons and after conducting consultations the necessary additional time for implementation of activities under investigation and other procedural actions shall be determined. MLA: In general no specific deadline is fixed. The practice necessitated, when the requesting state did not fix a specific term, the requests for legal assistance to be fulfilled as soon as possible, which usually takes between two and four months according to the factual and legal complexity of the particular request.

In respect of cooperation with States outside the EU, the European Convention on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters of 1959 is applicable.